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weaning questions

how do I start weaning? my 9.5 month old dd nurses 7ish times a day. eats solids 2-3 times a day (and nursed after she eats solids). I want to wean by 1 year. so where to start? also, my husband is an account and tax time is unfortunately on it's way it is an extremely difficult time for me and my 3 year old. dd will be 1 year mid march, tax time is over really at the end of april. should I wait until after tax time when I'm stressed to the MAX or start aggressively now? thanks for you help!

Time will Tell

I never thought I would start weaning before 1 year and then after coming here I thought I would BF forever!

BUT at 9 months my daughter really became more active and could not sit still for feedings. She simply lost interest here and there. At first, I tried persauding her and did not give up, constantly trying to coax her. Then when she turned 10 months I realized that it was more than just a nursing strike. She went form skipping a few feedings to hardly nursing more than 2-3 minutes. We still get a good nurse in here or there and I still pump, but they days of her eyes rolling back in her head and really emptying my breast are already gone, WAY before I thought they would be.

You may be surprised how gradual things work out. See what happens with your little one before you try to plan anything. That's what happned to us.
Good luck!

Re: weaning questions

At about the age your DC is, my DD started getting very distracted at "milkings" and so when she started fidgeting or wanted down, I would let her down. Once she started walking supported, the weaning process began in earnest here because she just didn't want to sit still too long! She only took a few sips at I think it was the 4:00 pm feeding. So after her few sips and running away, LOL, I offered her a handful of Cheerios to help fill her up a bit.

After about a week of that, and "playing" with cereal once of twice a day, to substitute for the second milking of the morning, I started her on cereal mixed with either pumped milk or water. She actually preferred the cereal mixed with water, not milk! And after the cereal, a couple of spoonfuls of fruit or vegs that I steamed, ran through the blender with water, and stored in the freezer.

The key seemed to be to eliminate one milking session at a time, slowly. I made a lot of my own baby food, but the jarred organic stuff is very tasty (I love the organic sweet potatoes myself...) and great for traveling...we often leave home on weekends.

Right now we are down to 3-4 milkings per day (pre-morning nap, 6 pm, and 8 pm bedtime) plus lots of variety of solids at early morning, mid-morning, after-nap, and 4 pm)

She is enjoying baby oatmeal, rice, & barley...hand-sized pieces of toast she feeds herself...steamed carrot chunks, green beans, and other veggies, a bit of cheese, Cheerios, bits of chicken and other meat to feed herself with, smashed beans and edamame.

Just found out I am slightly pregnant and so I hope to fully wean her within the next few months, before my milk supply drops...she'll be one year old next month and we will keep up at least 3 milkings until one year old. That seems to be the general consensus...at one year you should still be at 3-4 nursings per day...

Keep in mind that no one in the medical profession would advocate you completely dropping breastmilk/formula from her diet until one year, so your weaning strategy may have to include changing over to formula until the one-year mark at least...